In the smartphone deathmatch between RIM’s Blackberry versus Apple’s iPhone, it appears that Steve Jobs’ brainchild may be pulling ahead when it comes to the choice for bankers.British bank Standard Chartered is replacing the Blackberry, currently its standard corporate communications device, with the iPhone. The move could mean thousands of bankers switching to the Apple device for on-the-go business communications.
The London-based bank is giving its corporate Blackberry users the option of switching to the iPhone, while the company continues to pay for monthly billing for business-related phone and data services.
“It’s a group-wide initiative involving wholesale and consumer banks globally,” a Singapore-based spokesperson for Standard Chartered told Reuters.
In a similar move last June, Singapore’s Overseas-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) also gave its employees the choice of a Blackberry or an iPhone to access corporate email.
Peter Koh, head of technology infrastructure at OCBC, told Reuters, “This initiative is not intended to replace the Blackberry. Rather, we want to provide our colleagues with another option to access their office email and sync their contacts, notes and calendar while on the move.”
“Our colleagues can continue to enjoy the features and content available on their iPhone without the hassle of carrying another device in order to access office email,” he explained.
What does this mean for Blackberry developers, RIM?
“If more companies switch to the iPhone, this is of course bad news for RIM,” said Lu Chialin, an IT industry analyst at Macquarie Securities in Taipei. “However, it will take a long time for companies to do their own internal testing before deciding to change, so it will be a while before it has any effect on RIM.”
She explains the biggest issue for most companies choosing telephone and email hardware is data encryption. And because she feels RIM has a more effective system than other handset makers, the shift toward the iPhone is not one that will happen overnight.
So which smartphone do you prefer? Is the Blackberry in danger of being dialed out, or is the iPhone over-rated?
